.:Locations - All

Warren M. Robbins Library, National Museum of African Art (Washington, D.C.)
The Warren M. Robbins Library, National Museum of African Art has more than 32,000 volumes and covers all aspects of African visual arts, including sculpture, painting, printmaking, pottery, textiles, crafts, popular culture, photography, architecture, rock art, and archaeology. More information about this library

National Air and Space Museum Library (Washington, D.C.)
The National Air and Space Museum Branch Library houses more than 29,000 books, 11,000 bound serials, and a microform collection. The scope of the collections covers aeronautics and astronautics, the history of aviation and space flight, astronomy, and Earth and planetary sciences. More information about this library

Smithsonian American Art Museum / National Portrait Gallery Library (Washington, D.C.)
The collection of 180,000 books, exhibition catalogs, catalogues raisonnes, serials and dissertations is concentrated in the area of American art, history, and biography with supportive materials on European art. More information about this library

National Museum of American History Library (Washington, D.C.)
The NMAH Branch Library houses more than 120,000 books, 45,000 volumes of bound serials, representing about 300 current and 3,000 noncurrent titles. The microform collections contain 500 titles totaling approximately 8,000 reels of microfilm and 20,000 microfiche. At the broadest level, the NMAH Branch Library collections are concerned with the history of science and technology and its impact on both the American scene and the everyday life of Americans. More information about this library

Vine Deloria, Jr. Library, National Museum of the American Indian (Suitland, Maryland)
The Vine Deloria, Jr. Library, National Museum of the American Indian's growing collection currently consists of over 6,000 volumes, including periodicals. The Library collects comprehensively in all areas relating to the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere and Hawaii, including history, ethnology, religion, art, oral tradition, education, language, literature, biography, archaeology, and contemporary issues. Also collected are current publications, e.g., newspapers and newsletters, produced by Native groups. More information about this library

Anacostia Community Museum Library (Washington, D.C.)
The Anacostia Community Museum Library has over 3,500 books, and close to 100 periodical titles in various formats. It actively collects materials relating to the history and culture of the African diaspora in the Western hemisphere. Subject area strengths include the Upper South, African American women, slavery and abolitionism, and religion and the African American community. More information about this library

John Wesley Powell Library of Anthropology (Washington, D.C.)
The Anthropology Library, officially known as the John Wesley Powell Library of Anthropology, is one of 20 branches in the Smithsonian Institution Libraries' system. It is located within the Anthropology Department and supports the research, publication, exhibitions, and public programing of the department and other museums and offices within the Smithsonian. Its collection reflects the important role that the Smithsonian Institution played in the development of anthropology as a formal discipline in the United States.

The Anthropology Library was established in 1965 with the merger of two principal Smithsonian collections--the library of the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE;1879-1965) and the divisional collections of the Department of Anthropology. The former supported "anthropological researches" among the indigenous people of the Americas and was considered one of the best such resources in the world. Today's library is named after John Wesley Powell, the BAE founder and first director who is also well known for his early exploration of the Colorado River region. The latter collections grew out of the work of other museum staff not only in the Americas but also many places abroad, including Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Oceania. More information about this library

Botany and Horticulture Library (Washington, D.C.)
The Botany Library is one of 20 branch libraries in the Smithsonian Institution Libraries system. It was established in the winter of 1965-1966 when the Botany Department moved into the newly-built West Wing of the Natural History Museum and several collections of botanical literature were consolidated into a separate library. It provides research support for the Botany Department and the large number of botanists world-wide who use the collections and resources.

The Horticulture Branch Library was established in 1984 as a research support resource for the Horticulture Services Division, which is responsible for the management of the gardens, grounds, greenhouses, and interior plantscaping at the Smithsonian Institution. The Library evolved from a small office collection that was begun in the early 1970s. Since that time, this collection has been enhanced by the donation of several large gifts. An acquisition in 1984 of more than 150 American titles on landscape design dating from the 19th- and early 20th-centuries has become the foundation of a growing collection the subject. The collection has been placed next to the Botany Dept. library and is cared for by the Botany librarian. More information about this library

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Library (New York, New York)
The Library, known since 1976 as The Doris and Henry Dreyfuss Study Center, contains 60,000 volumes which document and support the Museum's collection of 250,000 objects in decorative arts including textiles, wall coverings, metalwork, furniture, ceramics, glass, jewelry, and prints and drawings. More information about this library

Joseph F. Cullman 3rd, Library of Natural History (Washington, D.C.)

The Cullman Library holds the Smithsonian's collection of rare books in anthropology and the natural sciences. Its world-class collection contains approximately 10,000 volumes published before 1840 in the fields of physical and cultural anthropology, ethnology, Native American linguistics, and archeology; botany; ornithology, mammalogy, herpetology, ichthyology, entomology, malacology, and other zoological fields; paleontology; and geology and mineralogy. The publications of seventeenth- through nineteenth-century voyages of exploration are a special strength, as is the history of museums and scientific collecting. All holdings are cataloged and searchable in the SIL online catalog SIRIS.

The Cullman Library makes the books available to researchers by direct access in the reading room and through reference assistance (including limited photocopying when possible). In addition, the Library shares the collection by means of digital editions, exhibitions, exhibition loans, and public programs.

Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology (Washington, D.C.)

The Dibner Library is the Smithsonian’s collection of rare books and manuscripts relating to the history of science and technology. Contained in this world-class collection of 35,000 rare books and 2,000 manuscript groups are many of the most important works dating from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries in the history of science and technology including engineering, transportation, chemistry, mathematics, physics, electricity, and astronomy. The Dibner Library shares this collection with the public through exhibitions in an adjacent gallery, through loans to other institutions’ exhibits, and through public programs.

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Library (Washington, D.C.)
Today, the library is the finest Asian art library in the United States. It contains approximately 80,000 monograph volumes and 1,400 serials titles. Almost half of its printed resources are in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. The library's collection is especially strong in research materials on Japanese ceramics, painting, and woodblock prints. More information about this library

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library (Washington, D.C.)
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library, founded in 1969, is a research collection devoted to modern and contemporary painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, and to a lesser degree photography, video, and emerging art forms. The Library has books and related materials (exhibition catalogs, auction catalogs, serials, and ephemeral material) from 1880 to the present, reflecting the artists in the museum collection and its exhibition program. More information about this library

Museum Studies Reference Library (Washington, D.C.)
The Museum Studies Reference Library has more than 28,000 books, over 280 periodical titles, as well as multi-media material. Subject areas covered include museum operations, museum organization, administration and management, and programs. The MSRL collection also contains the most recent editions of reference works. More information about this library

Museum Support Center Library (Suitland, Maryland)
The Museum Support Center is a museum collections management facility designed for the purposes of collections storage, research, and conservation. More information about this library

National Museum of Natural History Library (Washington, D.C.)
The National Museum of Natural History Library consists of the Main Location and 15 specialized collections throughout the National Museum of Natural History building. These collections are located within the Department of Systematic Biology (Entomology, Invertebrate Zoology, and Vertebrate Zoology), Mineral Sciences and Paleobiology.

The NMNH Main Library and its satellite locations all have strong collections of 19th- and 20th-century literature (thanks in part to the gifts of early Smithsonian curators). Pre-1840 titles are accessible in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History, with is part of the Special Collections Department, SIL. More information about this library

National Museum of Natural History Library, Invertebrate Zoology (Washington, D.C.)
The Entomology and Invertebrate Zoology Libraries, which are part of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Natural History Library, provide information support services to the Entomology and Invertebrate sections of the Department of Zoology at the National Museum of Natural History, 10th and Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20560 . In addition to serving museum staff, they also provide information assistance to a wide array of individuals including pre-doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows, visiting scientists, interns and the general public. The libraries' collections emphasize systematics, taxonomy, morphology, zoogeography, ecology, evolution, biodiversity and comparative anatomy as related to invertebrates. The collections date from the mid- nineteenth century and emphasize new world fauna. More information about this library

National Museum of Natural History Library, Vertebrate Zoology (Washington, D.C.)
The Vertebrate Zoology satellite libraries of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) Library consist of the Amphibian and Reptiles, Fishes, Birds, and Mammal Libraries. They are spread throughout the National Museum of Natural History Building. Each is located within the respective Division: Amphibians and Reptiles, Birds, Fishes and Mammals, which fall under the Department of Zoology, one of the several major departments of the Museum. These divisional libraries focus on the systematics, taxonomy, anatomy and physiology, ecology, distribution, and evolution of their respective subject groups. The book and periodical collections total around 25,000 volumes. They have strong collections of 19th and 20th century literature (thanks in part to the gifts of early Smithsonian curators). Materials from publishers throughout the world are actively collected. In content, the collection consists of taxonomic information from post-Linnaean research, 1758 onward, but takes in the recent geological period (past 10,000 years) as well. For materials published before 1840, see the rare book collections of the Cullman Library of Natural History. More information about this library

National Postal Museum Library (Washington, D.C.)
Although the resources at the National Postal Museum Library focus on the postal history and philately of the United States, the collections are international in scope. Europe, North America and Australia are particularly well represented. The Library has more than 5,000 books, 6,000 serial titles, manuscript files, photographs and many auction and stamp catalogues. More information about this library

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Library (Edgewater, Maryland)
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Branch Library houses a collection of approximately 7,500 monographs and bound journals (118 journals are currently subscribed to), microfilm, fiche, and videos. These materials support the scientific and educational research in the following broad areas: global change; landscape ecology; coastal ecosystems; population and community ecology, with emphasis on the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounds. More information about this library

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Library (Republic of Panama)
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Library (STRI Library), also known as the Earl Silas Tupper Library in Tropical Biology, is one of the 20 libraries of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries (SIL). The branch is located at Portobello Avenue, Ancón, Panama City, Republic of Panama. The Branch has sublocations on the Island of Barro Colorado, on the Gatun Lake of the Panama Canal, and on Colón Island, at the research station in the province of Bocas del Toro. The Library supports research, publications, exhibits and public programming of the Institute, as well as those of other museums and bureaus of the Smithsonian Institution. More information about this library

National Zoological Park Library (Washington, D.C.)
The NZP Library houses a collection of more than 5,000 books and 185 serial titles on zoos and aquariums, animal behavior, husbandry, veterinary medicine, pathology, genetics, nutrition, wildlife conservation, biodiversity, and horticulture. The library also has a special collection (called the Zooiana Collection) of publications from other zoos and aquariums such as animal collection inventories, annual reports, guidebooks and miscellaneous pamphlets. Extensive collections of zoo and animal-related bibliographies and NZP staff publications are also located in the library. More information about this library